﻿Panel To Decide On Incentives For Ph.D. Students Within Two Months: Government

An inter-ministerial committee has been set up to enhance the fellowship of PhD students and workout the incentives for research scholars within two months, a senior official said Thursday.

An inter-ministerial committee has been set up to enhance the fellowship of Ph.D. students and work out the incentives for research scholars within two months, a senior official said Thursday. Apprising about the empowered committee, Department of Science and Technology Secretary Ashutosh Sharma said it will have officials from various ministries, who will examine all fellowship related matters that have a bearing on enhancing the value, quality and experience of doctoral research, including the quantum of fellowship.

“We want to look at the value of Ph.D. in a holistic way. Ph.D students are the backbone in progress of a country as they strongly contribute to various fields.

“An
empowered committee has been formed to bring all ministries together to
periodically visit the quantum of fellowship and incentivise research,”
Sharma said, adding that the committee is likely to take a call on the
incentivisation of top class research within a month or two.

He was
speaking at a press conference held at the CSIR Science Centre, which was also
attended by Renu Swarup, the secretary of the Department of Biotechnology
(DST), and Shekhar C Mande, the director general of CSIR and secretary of the
Department of Scientific & Industrial Research.

Union
minister Harsh Vardhan, who could not attend the conference, later in an
official statement said that he was happy about the initiative to provide
financial and academic incentives to recognise performance of research fellows.

In the statement, the Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate change, said “science and technology is a fast moving area in which a dynamic and holistic vision is required to secure the future of the nation and this will be a performance based addition to the enhanced fellowship.”

The
government had on Wednesday announced a hike in fellowships which will directly
benefit 60,000 research fellows.

Sharma said
that there was a need to reduce the gap between the quantity of research and
its quality.

“Sometimes
quantity of research gets marred by the quality of research which may not be up
to the mark. This gap needs to be reduced and quality of research can be
improved by improving the incentives for it,” he said.

“We will
consider what and how much incentive is to be given after the full budget
comes,” he added.

He said there
are various schemes to promote global exchange of researchers, including
”VAJRA”-Visiting Advanced Joint Research Faculty Scheme, a dedicated
programme exclusively for overseas scientists and academicians with emphasis on
NRIs and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO)/ Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) to
work as adjunct/visiting faculty for a specific period of time in public funded
academic and research institutions.

According to
the statement released by the ministry, there is a substantial 30-35 per cent
enhancement in the financial rewards for the scientists involved in the
research and development (R&D) projects as research associates and the top
bracket of research associateship is fixed at Rs. 54,000.

All the
research fellows are also entitled to house rent allowance as per the central
government norms.

Fellowship of
the Junior Research Fellows (JRF) in the first two years of the PhD programme
has been increased from Rs. 25,000
to Rs. 31,000 per month.

Similarly, in the remaining tenure of Ph.D. students, a senior research fellow will get Rs. 35,000 per month, instead of the current Rs. 28,000.

Foundation Stone Laid For Central University Of Himachal Pradesh

The Union Minister said the Centre has sanctioned several national institutions in the state – IIIT sanctioned for Una, IIT for Mandi, Cluster University sanctioned for Mandi district. In addition to these, several Central schools have also been sanctioned.

Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday jointly laid the foundation stone of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh at Dehra in Kangra district. Mr Javadekar said the university would open new vistas of development in the area, besides providing quality higher education.

He said the Central government would provide
all possible help to ensure that the university campus is completed soon.

The Union Minister said the Centre has sanctioned several national institutions in the state – IIIT sanctioned for Una, IIT for Mandi, Cluster University sanctioned for Mandi district. In addition to these, several Central schools have also been sanctioned.

He said the Union
government was committed to provide digital boards in a phased manner in about
nine lakh schools across the country.

Speaking on the
occasion, the Chief Minister said the Central University of Himachal Pradesh
would have two campuses — Dehra and Dharamsala, both in Kangra district.

He said the first campus, to be spread over 750 hectares, would be at Jadrangal near Dharamsala. The second campus would be established at Dehra in an area of 287 hectares.

Mr Thakur said
about Rs. 1,300 crore would be spent on the construction of both
these campuses that would be completed in three years.

He said the state was committed to provide quality education. For this, Rs.7,044 crore was being spent on the education sector during the current financial year and a provision of Rs. 7,600 crore has been made for the next fiscal.

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﻿Law Teachers Seek Permission To Practice In Courts

Once the law teachers were permitted to take up the cases, it would be on a pro-bono basis and if a fee was charged, it would be shared between the university concerned and the law teacher in the ratio of 60:40, the release said.

The executive committee of a consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) has decided to seek permission from the Bar Council of India to allow full-time faculty to practice law in courts. The decision, among others, was taken by the committee at a meeting here Wednesday, a press release from the Nalsar University of Law here said Thursday.

(NLUs) has decided to seek permission from the Bar Council of India to allow full-time faculty to practice law in courts. The decision, among others, was taken by the committee at a meeting here Wednesday, a press release from the Nalsar University of Law here said Thursday.

Also, the committee resolved that the issue would be taken up with the Bar Council of India seeking an amendment to its Rule 49 which prohibits full-time salaried employees from practicing in courts.

The committee said that not allowing law teachers to practice in the courts of law was ‘harming’ the legal system as law teachers are as important stakeholders in the system as lawyers and judges and can contribute meaningfully to the legal system, the press release said.

Besides, the committee
said that as the country badly needs litigation lawyers and also needs to
bridge the gap between law in books and law in action, it is necessary that the
teachers should themselves go to the court along with the students.

Vice-chancellor of Nalsar varsity and president of the consortium of NLUs professor Faizan Mustafa said the executive committee resolved that in case law teachers are not permitted to practice, a non-practicing allowance of 25 percent at par with medical doctors should be paid, according to the release.

Once the law teachers were permitted to take up the cases, it would be on a pro-bono basis and if a fee was charged, it would be shared between the university concerned and the law teacher in the ratio of 60:40, the release said.

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He said that the government will work towards providing all these classes with facilities for digital boards by 2022, starting from the 75th anniversary of the country’s independence.

The Human Resource
Development Ministry on Wednesday launched Operation Digital Blackboard, under
which nine lakh classrooms in schools and colleges across the country will be
equipped with digital facilities for teaching by 2022.

“Some 60-70 years back there was an ‘Operation Blackboard‘ because that was the need of the hour then. But the country has progressed over the years, and now we need an Operation Digital Blackboard,” Mr Javadekar said during the launch.

Last year, the ministry had formed a committee under Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras to look into the need of digital blackboards in schools/colleges.

Emphasising the need for digital modes of education to improve the quality of education, Mr Javadekar said that the committee assessed a requirement for seven lakh digital blackboards in classes 9-12, and two lakh for classes in higher education institutions.

He said that the government will work towards providing all these classes with facilities for digital boards by 2022, starting from the 75th anniversary of the country’s independence.